The Charles Chukwuma Soludo Campaign has praised the judiciary for yesterday’s judgment delivered by Mr Justice Ekwo Inyang of the Federal High Court on the suit brought by Chief George Moghalu, chief executive of the National Inland Waterways Authority and a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), against the party and its purported candidate in the November 6 gubernatorial election in Anambra State, Senator Andy Uba, over Uba’s nomination.
Justice Inyang, in the ruling, formally nullified Uba’s supposed candidature because there was no primary election on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Anambra State which Uba or any of the other 13 APC aspirants could have won. Chief Moghalu, one of the 14 APC aspirants, brought the suit because he was not given a chance to contest in the primary election after meeting all requirements for participation.
“The judgment demonstrates that the Nigerian judiciary will always be on the side of truth, discipline, order, justice and courage”, the Soludo Campaign declared today in a statement in Awka, the state capital, signed by its Director of Media and Communication, C. Don Adinuba.
“The judge made it abundantly clear that Uba was never the APC candidate, thus vindicating this Campaign which has consistently maintained for several months that the party had no candidate in the election”.
The Soludo Campaign stated that with sound and bold judgments like the one delivered by Justice Inyang the culture of political and criminal impunity in the country would be checked sooner than later.
Uba and his ilk would now have to think twice before allocating fantastic figures to themselves during party primaries and general elections, the campaign said, adding:
“Uba claimed that he scored 230,201 out of the 348,490 votes purportedly cast during the so-called primary election, still there are not up to 20,000 APC members in Anambra State where the APC had the worst showing in the 2019 general election throughout the country”.
Uba earned a mere 43,285 out of the 241,523 votes in the November 6 gubernatorial vote, losing in each of the 21 local government areas in the state, including his own Aguata, unlike APGA’s Soludo who won 112,229 votes and was victorious in 19 LGAs, including his.
Fraud, declared the Soludo Campaign, should no longer be allowed to define Nigeria’s political process, so as to create a new social order in the country.
It argued that the judiciary has set in motion the machinery for the new order, noting that since the appellate courts have overturned the embarrassing judgments of the Birnin Kudu High Court and the Owerri High Court on the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) national leadership, various courts in the land have been giving robust judgments on Anambra politics.
These judgments and related actions have gone a long way to restore public confidence in the judiciary as an independent arm of government and as the last hope of the people, according to the group.
It noted the statement by Chief Judge John Tsoho of the Federal High Court at the 37th Annual Conference of Judges last Friday praising fellow judges for not allowing their courts to be used to truncate or interfere with the Anambra governorship election.
Said the Soludo Campaign: “We welcome the order by the Federal High Court on the APC to refund Chief Moghalu the whopping N22m he paid to it for his declaration of interest and nomination form.
“Uba has over the years demonstrated an obsession with political leadership, yet he has absolutely no respect for the law, due process, fair play and justice, thus making him unfit for public office”.